Romano Prodi, theologian....
As if being a former EU head commissar and leading a coalition including the extreme left is not enough, Prodi has decided to lecture Rome on matters of faith and the like:
"Prodi sparked the row on Tuesday when he said in an interview published by Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana: "When I go to Mass, why do I almost never hear the priest talk about tax evasion, which is an important moral issue?" The Catholic premier said a third of Italians were major tax dodgers and that "in order to change mentality, everyone has to do their bit, the schools and the Church included". Source
Well, well, well. The Church has been around an awful lot longer than the Italian Republic, and it ill behoves Prodi to tell it what to put in its homilies.
I cannot lay hands on the details, but I read some years back that if the Italian state collected all of the taxes it levies, they would amount to something like 110% of GDP, and that an espresso bought in a cafe suffers about a dozen different taxes.
Meanwhile, my archepiscopal hero of the day is Bruno Forte, the Archbishop of Chieti, "[who] said part of the blame lay with the government because it failed to show citizens that their money was being well spent".
"Prodi sparked the row on Tuesday when he said in an interview published by Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana: "When I go to Mass, why do I almost never hear the priest talk about tax evasion, which is an important moral issue?" The Catholic premier said a third of Italians were major tax dodgers and that "in order to change mentality, everyone has to do their bit, the schools and the Church included". Source
Well, well, well. The Church has been around an awful lot longer than the Italian Republic, and it ill behoves Prodi to tell it what to put in its homilies.
I cannot lay hands on the details, but I read some years back that if the Italian state collected all of the taxes it levies, they would amount to something like 110% of GDP, and that an espresso bought in a cafe suffers about a dozen different taxes.
Meanwhile, my archepiscopal hero of the day is Bruno Forte, the Archbishop of Chieti, "[who] said part of the blame lay with the government because it failed to show citizens that their money was being well spent".
Labels: Italy, Men and women of the cloth, Taxes
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on Thursday, August 02, 2007 at 12:54 pm.
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As Silvio Berlusconi once said:
'Prodi is like a useful idiot, he lends his cheery parish priest's face to the Left, whichis 70% ex-Communist'
It's hard to fault Silvio on that score...
Faulting Silvio on just about everything else is really easy though; half the magistrates in Milan are doing it right now (and Mr Jowell).
A friend living in Turin in the 60s knew an Englishman who would not play the game, so declared his true income. Tax authorities did the usual, multiplied by 3 to get a truer picture, and demanded more tax than the guy really earned.
Now we know where Gordon did his training ...
Alan Douglas
You must be so relieved you live in the UK rather than in Italy: the democratic governance, the tax rates, the health and education services, the cultural sophistication, the weather. Who could give it up?
I got back from some business in Mialn last week and noted as usual that the streets are paved in Audi Q7s (one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest regions in Europe).
I read somewhere recently that the average Milanese declares an annual income of £ 5,400.
£5,400 would be about right, after all the important things have been secured, wouldn't it? If the Labour attitude to our incomes is so predatory, there too, we must ensure that necessities are ensured before it is assessed, in the Italian manner.
Otherwise what is the point of the accountant?
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